Broke All Records: Netflix Reported About 16 Million New Subscribers

Streaming service Netflix published a report with the results of work in the first quarter of 2020. The company management noted a tremendous increase in subscribers, ongoing work on projects and high net profit, but did not exclude the possibility of part of the audience leaving after quarantine was completed.

According to Netflix’s quarterly report, thanks to universal quarantine, 15.8 million subscribers have joined the online cinema. This result was twice as much as the company’s own forecast made at the beginning of the year. Thus, the total number of service users worldwide has reached 183 million people. Reporting on seasonal revenue, Netflix management suggested that in the second quarter the number of new subscribers will increase by 7.5 million, reports Deadline.

Separating data by region, the company reported 2.3 million new users in the US and Canada, 6.9 million in Africa and the Middle East, 2.9 million in Latin America and 3.6 million in Asia. Last year, over the same period, 9.6 million subscribers worldwide joined the service. Despite the risks of losing your audience after quarantine, Bernstein analyst Todd Juenger believes that people will not be able to refuse to use streaming services.

“As more and more people connect to Netflix, with particularly active use they will not want to come back to life without it,” said Juenger. “The involvement of the population in streaming services will be accelerated and will continue to take root in the culture.”

This year, the streaming giant’s shares grew by 30%, while other areas of the entertainment business – from theme parks to sports – are suffering enormous losses. As expected, Netflix’s quarterly revenue was $ 5.77 billion (last year the service earned $ 4.52 billion over the same period). The company’s net profit compared with the first quarter of 2019 more than doubled – from $ 344 million to $ 709 million.

The most popular Netflix projects during the pandemic were the documentary series ‘Tiger King’ and the new season ‘Money Heist’. The show about the owner of the zoo with wild cats within a month after the release was watched by more than 64 million users around the world. The new series ‘Money Heist’, filmed by Alex Pina in Spanish, were played on 65 million accounts.

Despite the huge growth of subscribers, Netflix does not exclude the mass rejection of the service after the pandemic in many countries. Another problem for the company was the strengthening of the US dollar, which provoked a small increase in earnings in countries with weaker currencies.

Ready-made Netflix content, including remotely downloaded content, is enough for a stable release in 2020 and partially in 2021. In the second half of next year, the broadcast stream may be reduced due to the fact that the production of part of the projects was frozen. According to the report, their output will be braked by one quarter.

Netflix Content Manager Ted Sarandos said the company is currently exploring the global environment to work in the most secure locations. “The situation is unstable, but these two countries are very responsible for testing and tracking coronavirus in the early stages, so they can become fundamental to our work,” said Sarandos.

He did not name the projects whose production is currently underway. However, it is worth noting that the comments of the Netflix representative emphasize the great advantage of the service during the pandemic, when many producers of films, TV shows and television projects suspended their work.